If you’ve ever been to a festival, or even a concert, you have an idea how much waste these events can generate.

The top 100 tours in 2015 sold an estimated 60 million plastic water bottles (the equivalent of 48,000 barrels of oil) while 130 million paper goods (about 160,000 trees) were used,” Huffington Post reports.

“[And] 80 to 90 percent of concerts’ carbon emissions come from fans driving en masse to get there.”

Well, musician Jack Johnson has had enough of all the waste; and he is working to make his shows as sustainable as possible. So, before the singer-songwriter agrees to play a show at a venue, he now has to be assured that all his “environmental demands” are met in his concert riders.

Johnson’s riders request that recycling not be thrown away with trash and that energy-efficient lightbulbs be installed throughout a venue before he takes the stage. He also asks “the venue to purchase carbon dioxide offsets to cover all the energy used during the show,” Huffington Post reports.

“You hear all these horror stories of people’s riders requesting one color of M&Ms or super fancy champagne,” Johnson says. “We just figured, all right, let’s be demanding with these, because we know they’re not going to switch back to those energy-draining bulbs once the show is over.”

In 2008, before Johnson overhauled his touring habits, he almost decided to never go on the road again. “I didn’t know if I needed to keep touring, especially when I considered the environmental impact of what I was doing,” he says.

So, Johnson and his wife decided he’d continue to tour if they could turn his tours into fundraisers and make the shows as sustainable as possible. “For the next five years, they used environmentally focused riders to force venues into greening up their spaces with reusable beer pints, water refill stations and energy-saving equipment,” the Post adds. “They traveled on tour buses and used generators that were powered by biodiesel fuel. He insisted on using caterers who use locally sourced, organic foods and encouraged fans to take alternative transportation to the shows by setting up bike valets or promoting mobile carpool apps.”

After all his work, Johnson managed to make his tours incredibly green, and also influenced a few venues to change their un-sustainable ways.

“The thing we keep hearing from venues, which we think is cool, is that they realize [the changes they made] were more cost-effective,” Johnson says. “Or, they just realize they had great feedback from the patrons and they get so much good press that they start doing everything they can [to green up the venue].”

So, how much of an impact is Johnson making with these changes? Quite a big one.

During Johnson’s last tour, he was able to:

• Offset 2.3 million pounds of CO2 emissions.
• Divert 489 pounds of waste from landfills.
• Prevent 18,392 single-use plastic bottles from being used.

Now, that’s something to sing about.

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Image of Jack Johnson via Shutterstock, Daniel DeSlover

The post Here’s Why Jack Johnson’s Concert Riders Matter, Even if You’re Not a Fan appeared first on EcoSalon.

Musicians Jason Mraz and Jack Johnson, both avid conservationists, are letting their voices be heard when it comes to dredging the Great Barrier Reef.

Both artists are working with Sierra Club in their online #SaveTheReef campaign. The world famous reef is home to more than 30 marine species like Bottlenose dolphins, Humpback whales, and Green and Loggerhead turtles. The reef is at risk as a result of a massive proposed coal mining project.

“I’m lucky enough to have explored the Great Barrier Reef firsthand, and feel we must do all we can to prevent irreversible damage to this incredibly diverse environment,” says Jack Johnson, a musician, avid surfer, and environmentalist.

The proposed Carmichael coal mine construction would involve dredging 3 million tons of seabed from the bottom of the reef. The dredging not only puts Australia’s $6 billion tourist industry at risk, it could also threaten the crystal clear waters around the reef. Dredging is done so that large coal, gas, and bulk carriers can access ports, but it threatens to destroy water quality and surrounding seagrass beds.

The area is a sensitive breeding ground for turtles and dugongs. Plus, the practice, which would dig up sediment from the bottom of the reef, is known to increase the risk of coral diseases like white syndrome, which causes coral tissues to fall off.

“As a surfer, I enjoy the ocean and want to protect it. As a badass, I know there are better ways to generate energy and burning coal is not one of them,” says Jason Mraz, also a musician, surfer, and environmentalist. “Wake up and tell polluters we don’t want the barrier reef destroyed for profit. Wtf!”

Some U.S. taxpayers would also unknowingly be supporting the project because Adani, the Indian company financing the plan, has requested additional funding from the U.S. Export – Import Bank, ExIm. According to Sierra Club, other banks including Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland, HSBC, Barclays, Goldman Sachs, Credit Agricole, and JPMorgan Chase have rejected the plan because of the potential damage it can do to a World Heritage Site.

“At a time when the Reef’s fragile and priceless ecosystem is already under siege from existing carbon pollution and increasing ocean temperatures, the last thing the world needs is yet another expensive, destructive coal project,” said John Coequyt, director of the Sierra Club’s International and Federal Climate Program in a statement. “We’ve already seen other leading financial institutions back away from this reckless project, and it’s time Ex-Im use U.S. tax dollars responsibly and follow suit.”

If you want to protect the Great Barrier Reef from destruction, go to the #SaveTheReef campaign and sign the petition. You can also help spread the word but tweeting out the petition and recruiting others to sign it as well.

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Aerial image of the Great Barrier Reef from Shuttershock

The post Jack Johnson and Jason Mraz Fight to Save the Great Barrier Reef appeared first on EcoSalon.

Musicians realize they can use their stage appeal for a greater green good.

As more and more musicians realize the power of song and their influence over devoted followers, a handful have begun to use the stage as a pulpit to proclaim the wonders of living consciously.

Adam Gardner, Guster guitarist and vocalist and co-founder of Portland, Maine based Reverb (an organization dedicated to assisting touring artists by making activities more environmentally sound), says more bands are looking at the impact of their tours and wanting to green them up. Some “green tours” have even become company-wide policy and practice by venue owners and promoters like Live Nation and AEG.

“As someone who has been in a band on tour for the past 20 years, my experience has been that lots of bands have felt badly about their impact on the planet while on tour, but just weren’t sure what to do about it and their road staff didn’t have the capacity to take on any other work,” Gardner says.

But with Gardner’s Reverb and their collective, the Green Music Group (including industry greats like Bonnie Raitt, the Dave Matthews Band, Maroon 5, Linkin Park and Janelle Monae), Reverb has really guided the music community when it comes to taking action on behalf of the environment.

From bio diesel tour buses to sizable donations earmarked for environmental causes, these 20 musicians are creating closer connections with the planet and their fans support them all the way.

(To see even more artists who have made changes to their tour’s carbon footprint go here.)

Jack Johnson

Hawaiian born and bred Jack Johnson is to be applaudeded for his two solar-powered studios, tour buses with sustainable biodiesel, eco-friendly tour merchandise, and for promoting ride share programs to and from concerts. No newbie to the green touring scene, Johnson has a history of doing the right thing.

His upcoming Kokua Festival benefit concert for the Kokua Hawaii Foundation will help to support environmental education in the schools and communities of Hawaii so they will be lifelong stewards of the earth. Expect to see onstage collaborations with legendary musicians like Willie Nelson, Jackson Browne, Eddie Vedder, Ben Harper, Dave Mathews, Ziggy and Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley and more.

Fun

A recent addition to the Reverb roster is the band Fun whose current greening efforts include recycling, green cleaning supplies, carbon offsets for all tour vehicles as well as recycling backstage as well as in the front of the house during shows.

Ben Harper

Ben Harper, famous for more recent hits like “Steal My Kisses” and “Diamonds on the Inside,” has been promoting green initiatives for years with tour merch including organic cotton t-shirts and recycled CD covers and was the headlining act for Reverb’s Campus Consciousness Tour last April and continues to make environmental leaps and bounds.

Sheryl Crow

Sheryl Crow has been a force to be reckoned with in the music community when it comes to taking action on behalf of the environment. Some of her recent eco-initiatives have been filling her trucks and buses with B20 biodiesel fuel, implementing extensive waste reduction and recycling backstage and on buses, offering local and organic food backstage and calculating and neutralizing the carbon footprint from tour buses, trucks, flights and venue energy use by supporting renewable energy.

Maroon 5

Known for their commitment to the environment, Maroon 5 was honored at the 2006 Environmental Media Awards and recently pledged their time and energy toward Global Cool, a newly launched initiative to fight global warming by motivating a billion people worldwide to reduce their personal energy use. Reverb first worked with Maroon 5 on their 2008 tour.

Jesse Carmichael, keyboardist for Maroon 5 says: “As we make little baby steps, we get more and more people interested in making tours sustainable and more and more aspects of all of our lives sustainable. And hopefully just get some information and spread it around to people, and we’ll all do what we can and things will move forward in a good way.”

Neil Young

Neil Young uses biodiesel trucks and buses and runs 17 other diesel vehicles on vegetable oil. Plus, he’s Neil Young. Just his singing and guitar playing make the world a better planet to live on.

J. Cole

J. Cole’s upcoming “The Sideline Story Tour” will run through 13 dates between April and May. The tour, which is being presented by Reverb, is part a larger event titled the Campus Consciousness Tour. The tour is being slated as “half tour, half environmental campaign,” with the aim to inspire and activate students in an charged atmosphere while leaving a positive impact on each city they play in.

Willie Nelson

Willie Nelson’s own brand of farmer-supported, earth-friendly biodiesel appropriately named BioWillie is used with Nelson’s own tour buses but also to B20 blend-to highway-roving truckers, the largest group of diesel consumers in the country. Grist says in addition to his work with Farm Aid, an organization he helped found more than 20 years ago to assist family farmers, “Nelson has also been active in supporting the use of hemp in clothing and fuel, and protecting horses from slaughter.”

The Roots

The Roots, a Grammy winning hip-hop group have supported PETA, Global Inheritance and of course been Jimmy Fallon‘s house band since the show debuted.

Drake

Drake has educated his fans on the benefits of going green and how they can become involved in building a green economy. Initiatives have included his tour bus running on biodiesel, recycling and composting stations at each stop, biodegradable catering supplies and eco-friendly cleaning supplies, catering cooked with local, organic food, as well as merchandise made of sustainable materials.

Drake tells EcoSalon: “I’m able to utilize a certain amount of momentum, a certain amount of shine and project it on to these individuals who are doing such great things… It’s a tour with a message, it adds something to the energy of the tour.”

Bonnie Raitt

Rolling Stone says of Bonnie Raitt: “The bluesy Bonnie Raitt‘s activism predates almost any musician on the green circuit today, beginning most notably with her co-founding of Musicians United for Safe Energy as a response the nuclear incident on Three Mile Island in 1979.”

In addition to using B99 biofuel for her tour buses, Raitt has long been a proponent for clean energy.

Guster

Guster band member Adam Gardner is co-founder of tour-greening company Reverb.

Gardner tells EcoSalon: “Equally important to greening the tour itself is engaging the thousands of fans the tour reaches to take action and make changes in their own lives. We’ve found the key to this is making it fun and inspiring. The fact that the musicians are ‘walking their talk’ is also critical. We encourage musicians to be enthusiasts and not feel like they need to stand on a soapbox.  Reverb sets up Eco-Villages at concerts with local non profits, games, calls-to-action and green products and technologies for fans to check out. These eco-villages are extensions of the bands’ interests and support for environmental issues.”

Janelle Monáe

Grammy nominated singer Janelle Monáe has also had her time with Reverb on their annual Campus Consciousness Tour. Monáe told Ecorazzi last year that she loved the idea of bringing more of an overall experience onto college campuses. In addition to recycling and carbon offsets, Monáe’s concerts offered green cleaning supplies for buses and reusable water bottles for the crew.

“CCT has the right formula by combining music and activism and delivering it in a fun way to students,” says Monáe.

Dave Mathews Band

An on-going partnership between the Dave Matthews Band, Reverb and IZSTYLE, the Bama Green Project encompasses all of the environmental efforts undertaken by the band while on the road, in the studio or at home. In addition to working with the band, the Bama Green Project is also dedicated to educating DMB fans around the world about how to take simple and positive environmental actions.

Stefan Lessard bass player for the Dave Matthews Band tells EcoSalon: “One of the biggest things is getting the fans involved. Being out there and educating fans not only about what we’re doing as a band, but also what they can do themselves at home.”

Linkin Park

The fact that 1.3 billion people around the world do not have reliable and safe access to electricity recently inspired rock band Linkin Park to kick off a solar lighting initiative. The focus of Power The World is to supply solar powered lights to 1 million families by the end of 2012. The group has also pledged their support of the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon’s Sustainable Energy For All initiative last month as well as educating fans about reducing their carbon footprint.

John Mayer

John Mayer’s brand, AKOG (Another Kind of Green) was created from the belief that small steps toward environmental sustainability can effect widespread change when multiplied by a great number of participants. AKOG has been present on Mayer’s tours since 2007.

REM

R.E.M. signed to Warner Bros. Records in 1988, and began to espouse political and environmental concerns while playing large arenas worldwide. Known for their long-standing commitment to a number of environmental, feminist and human rights causes, R.E.M. has also volunteered to join campaigns encouraging voter registration, handgun control, and rainforest protection.

Brett Dennen

There’s more to a rock star’s life than sex, drugs and rock and roll and up and comer Brett Dennen is just the fresh face to prove it. Subscribing to living healthy, cooking from his backyard garden, and eating mostly raw, Denne can be found selling Klean Kanteen reusable water bottles at his shows, and sending partial proceeds to The Mosaic Project, which “empowers children to create peace now, build communities across differences, and break down stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination.” TLC reports that “low-income students will use the proceeds to attend a unique human relations outdoor school.”

The Fray

Formed in 2002, The Fray is an alternative rock band from Denver, Colorado. The Fray has worked with an eco-friendly philosophy since early in their career. Beginning with their collaboration with Reverb in 2005, the band has made efforts to lighten their environmental footprint. According to Rock the Green, In the recent past, The Fray has employed sustainable touring techniques like carbon offsets, recycling, and online carpooling resources for fans.

Barenaked Ladies

Barenaked Ladies is a Juno-winning and Grammy-nominated Canadian alternative rock band, best known for their light-hearted, comedic performance style. Reverb and BNL created Barenaked Planet and have worked together on tours and cruises since Reverb’s inception in 2004.

Image: AVclub, FanPop, slipped disc, Style Crunch

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